"C16 Speedster" seems a wholly inadequate moniker for this latest Corvette-based creation from Scuderia Reeves Callaway. "Millennium Falcon" is closer to the mark. Or maybe "Atomic Rooster." We need one of the ballyhoo artists from Jerry Bruckheimer Films to give this topless, windowless, two-seat UFO a proper name.

One look at the numbers (or the pictures) and you'll understand. Threatening to bust right through that impudent hood bulge is an all-alloy, 6.2-liter V-8 (the new LS3 from the 2008 Vette) that's force-fed 10 psi of boost via a three-lobe, Roots-style Eaton supercharger and an air-water intercooler-yielding 700 horsepower at 6200 rpm and 660 pound-feet of torque at 4750. Callaway says the Atomic Roo-er, Speedster-will do 0 to 60 mph in a mere 3.2 seconds and blaze the quarter in just under 11 seconds at 128 mph. Claimed top speed: more than 210 mph. Lift your jaw off the floor; there's more. If you want to fly a Speedster of your very own, you'll need to cough up $305,000. Tax and Dramamine not included.

"We don't need to sell a lot of these," says Reeves Callaway as we stand alongside the first and, thus far, only Speedster-which, parked in a vista point off California's IMAX-worthy Highway 1, is already drawing a camera-toting throng. "I'd be happy with 15 or 20. But even if we don't sell another [No. 1 has already found a happy buyer], we'll have accomplished what we needed. The Speedster is a statement, an extreme example of what Callaway Cars can do. "If this raging roadster is any indication, one thing Callaway can do is this: Cause passing Ferrari and Lamborghini drivers to make stunned, "I'm being upstaged!" double-takes. The flagship of the C16 line, which includes the more conventional C16 Coupe and Cabrio, the Speedster is easily the most striking Callaway ever produced. Montreal-based designer Paul Deutschman's low, lissome shape is more extraterrestrial than automobile. Most conspicuous are the double wind deflectors (there is no windshield) and, behind the leather-trimmed racing buckets, two integrated Formula 1 helmets from Stand 21; each is custom-fitted to the owner and a chosen co-pilot. Press a button and the rear lid rises, allowing the helmets to be removed (you'll want to wear them at anything above, say, 40 mph-unless you want your friends to start calling you Bugsy or Chip). Hidden behind the helmets is a set of fitted Schedoni leather luggage. Also hidden (because they aren't there) are the door handles and the mirrors. The doors open via Callaway's touch-sensitive "DSpot" bodywork (when the electronic fob is in range); instead of mirrors, the Speedster uses three tiny rear-facing cameras that feed images to the Panasonic Strada nav display.

With the Speedster's paint barely dry and the applause still echoing from its world debut at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, Motor Trend climbed aboard to roll the very first miles onto the odometer of this spectacular ship. First impression: The Speedster is sensationally, viciously quick. Equipped with the Corvette's six-speed manual (a six-speed paddle-shift automatic is a no-cost option), the Speedster lunges forward at the slightest graze of its right pedal. The supercharged V-8 produces not the usual bellow but, instead, an almost alien whine. It also produces massive, instantaneous torque and, if you stay flat on the floor, the kind of head rush you can normally only obtain by jumping out of an airplane strapped to a dinner napkin.

The ultra-lightweight wheels and brakes not only look cool, they reduce unsprung weight like a stapled stomach: 20 pounds per corner. The effect is like slipping on a pair of flip-flops after a day trudging around in hiking boots; the Speedster is light on its feet, with supple, easy steering and a remarkably compliant ride. Perhaps most impressive, it's really tight. Despite sharing not a single body panel with the Corvette it's based on, the Speedster (like the Chevy, it's made of fiberglass) is free of squeaks and structural flex.

Plus...it's just so cool to drive. Comfortably crowned by your paint-matched helmet, securely strapped into your open racing cockpit, no windshield between you and the road, you feel like you're piloting a Formula car on the street. The view forward is fantastic; to the rear, where sunshine often washes out the camera display, it's not so good (not that any Speedster driver would care). And everybody-that is to say, every single person within eyeshot-is riveted as the Speedster roars past. Particularly when two E.T.s in matching helmets are aboard, you can almost see passers-by mouthing the words: What is that?That, ladies and gents, is the ultra-rare, ultra-fast, ultra-fetching Callaway C16 Speedster. On a weekend when the Monterey Peninsula is bursting with the most extraordinary automobiles in the world, it also may just be the most attention-grabbing ride of them all.